Antonia Fraser entitled her
1983 history of women in 17th-century England, The Weaker Vessel, from
St. Peter’s advice to husbands that they give “honour unto the wife, as
unto the weaker vessel….” Fraser contends that women were not nearly as
inferior and dependent as the phrase implied.

According to The Lawes Resolutions
of Woman’s Rights, a 1632 description of women’s legal position, the common
law gave a father absolute authority over an unmarried daughter and a husband
similar authority over his wife. Married women were not considered legal
persons. An independent woman was viewed suspiciously.

With the outbreak of the
Civil War, women performed the work of absent husbands, raised funds for
the cause, served as spies, nursed the sick and injured, and became camp
followers. Contemporaries feared that the breakdown of traditional social
organization would lead to sexual license. There were radical groups that
proclaimed free love, but most of these seem to have been led by men, not
women. Women were involved in petitions and marches protesting the war
(and its consequences). There was the August 1643 Peace Petition and the
April 1649 Humble Petition of divers well-affected women inhabiting the
City of London, Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, Hamblets, and places
adjacent. The latter petition called for the release of the Leveller leaders,
and redress from high taxes, from the lack of work, and from arbitrary
government.

The Civil War saw an increase
in the number of prophetesses. George Fox, founder of the Quakers, published
(1656) the first defense in England of the spiritual equality of women
since the Reformation. Puritans in the H of C were less tolerant: in December
1646, they passed resolutions that “no person should expound the Scriptures
unless he be ordained in ‘this or some other Reformed Church’.”

Divorce was non-existent.
Separations (divortium a mensa et thoro) were possible in cases of abuse
or adultery, but neither party was free to marry again. The Commonwealth
Marriage Act of 1653 allowed the innocent party to marry again, but this
act was revoked with the Restoration. Marriages could be nullified on grounds
of consanguinity and affinity of blood, pre-contract, or impotency. The
first true divorce by act of Parliament (divortium a vinculo matrimonii)
was not until 1698 and involved actions in the House of Lords.

Single women had few means
of support. There was disdain for “she-authors.” Women did not appear on
stage until 1660. Nursing was not considered a profession. The only health
practitioner who was regularly paid for her services was the midwife. Most
women simply did not have the education that was necessary for the “professions.”
A 1696 Essay in Defense of the Female Sex bemoaned women’s fate: “Women,
like our Negroes in our western plantations, are born slaves, and live
prisoners all their lives.”